In a decade dominated by "cop" shows this one stood out
because it was a very humorous look at what was probably really
going on in most police precincts. It featured many comedic
actors as well as a couple of very serious character actors who
I'm sure enjoyed the chance to do comedy.

Barney Miller (Hal Linden) was a NYPD Captain of Detectives, he
was in charge of a precinct house and the detectives in it. Among
those detectives was Sgt. Arthur Dietrich (Steve Landesberg) a
very serious cop who showed off his intellectual prowess at every
chance. Sgt. Nick Yemana (Jack Soo) whose coffee was so bad that
they wouldn't even give it to the prisoners. Sgt. Philip K.
Fish (Abe Vigoda) the senior detective in the squad who was
constantly reminding Barney that he was near retirement and
shouldn't have to go out on calls. Det. "Wojo"
Wojciehowicz whose bleeding heart didn't match his tough guy
ex-marine exterior. Sgt. Ron Nathan Harris (Ron Glass) who was
more concerned with his writing career than his police duties.
Sgt. Miguel "Chano" Amangual (Gregory Sierra) who
always reminded you of his Puerto Rican heritage. Sgt. Nick
Yemana (Jack Soo) who if he wasn't screwing up the files was
probably placing an illegal bet on some game or a horse. Finally
there was Officer Carl Levitt (Ron Carey) who was a 5'4"
patrol officer who wanted nothing more than to become a
detective.

Barney had to try and keep the criminals off the streets while
dealing with his motley crew of detectives, budget problems,
endless paperwork and a wife who called all the time but was
rarely seen on camera.
This sitcom was widely regarded by real police officers as being
the most realistic cop show on television. Even though it was
meant as a farce its depiction of the squad room, the humor and
the amount of paperwork involved, they felt, came the closest to
actual police work.

Video Clip of Barney Miller

Passings

Jack Soo died in 1979 of esophageal cancer while the show was
still in production, he was only 61
James Gregory died in 2002, he was 90
Ron Carey died of a stroke in 2007, he was 71
Steve Landesberg passed away in 2010 of colon cancer, he was 74

TRIVIA:

In 1979, an episode was done with the actors out of character as
a tribute to actor Jack Soo, who played Det. Nick Yemana. Soo had
died of cancer that same year. The episode consisted of
unscripted reminiscences of Soo by the cast members, interspersed
with clips of him from the show. At the end of this episode, the
cast raised their coffee cups (see photo above) as a salute to
him, a reference to the running joke throughout the series that
Yemana always (but unintentionally) made very horrible coffee for
the squad.

TRIVIA:

Only thirteen episodes out of the 168 which were produced showed
scenes that were filmed outside of the police station. Of these, eight
were shot on sets made to look like one of the characters
apartments leaving only five which were actual street scenes.

Barney Miller was nominated for an Emmy every year of it's
run, it won an Emmy in 1979, 1980 and 1982.